Why Lucifer Was Canceled on That Season 3 Cliffhanger

Lucifer ended Season 3 with quite the cliffhanger - and on May 28, Fox aired two bonus episodes of the series that the producers had planned to debut as part of a potential Season 4 - but that doesn't mean the show's coming back.

Fox chairman Gary Newman gave a pretty straightforward reason for why Lucifer was canceled, according to Deadline: he boiled it down to "a ratings-based decision."

"We felt like performance-wise, we needed to make that change," Newman added.

Exit Theatre Mode

The cancelation is a gut punch, especially after Lucifer's series finale cliffhanger. (Warning: Spoilers for the Season 3 finale ahead.)

In the Season 3 finale, Chloe finally sees Lucifer's true, devilish face and realizes the truth about him after three seasons of near-misses. Lucifer co-showrunner Jon Henderson talked with TVLine about what would happen next if the series was renewed for Season 4.

"... There’s a reason we ended on a wide shot of Lucifer and Chloe standing opposite each other. There’s no going back," Henderson said. "We wanted to back ourselves into this corner, so there was no way we couldn’t stick with what we did.

"This is the end of an act, and the beginning of the next one is Chloe knowing the truth and having to deal with both the fact that her partner was actually the Devil, but also the man she has grown to love. That’s what we wanted to explore in Season 4."

Henderson previously stated that he thought Fox wouldn't cancel Lucifer with such a big cliffhanger. But that wasn't the case in the end. And despite a fervent #SaveLucifer fan campaign, the show has yet to be saved by another network, as was the case with Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Expanse earlier this month.

According to TVLine, Chloe's line in the episode - "I have seen a lot crazier things... like, a lot” - is indeed in reference to seeing Lucifer's demonic appearance, and since the two are still working together whenever this episode was supposed to take place in Season 4, it seems like she's come to accept, if not embrace, her partner's true self in some way. While it's still a longshot that the show will find new life on another network, these two episodes at least give fans an idea of what might have been (and a glimpse at Lucifer's comic book creator, Neil Gaiman, voicing God) - which is a minor miracle in itself.